SCIENTIFIC PROPHECIES. 45 



active and energetic minds of the day assert this. 

 We are told authoritatively that we must believe that 

 the non-living passes by gradations into the living, 

 although the bodies supposed to establish the fact of 

 these gradations exist only in the imaginations of 

 those who make the assertion. It is unsatisfactory, if 

 not useless, on the part of any one, however great the 

 authority he wields, to declare that although sub- 

 stances in a state of transition from the non-living to 

 the living cannot yet be produced, they will be dis- 

 covered at some future time. Why are we to believe 

 him ? Of all prophecies the prophetic assertions of the 

 scientific are the least worthy of belief, for the scientific 

 spirit is utterly incompatible with the spirit of pro- 

 phesy. No one can have so mistaken his calling in 

 this world as the scientific man who ventures to pro- 

 phesy, and yet the prophetic spirit seems to prevail 

 in scientific quarters where it would be least expected. 

 Even Professor Huxley cannot quite resist the tempta- 

 tion of foretelling what will be possible in a certain 

 time. He says that he believes it possible before 

 half a. century has elapsed, that man may be able to 

 take inorganic substances, such as carbonic acid, 

 ammonia, water, and salines, " and be able to build 

 them up into protein matter," and that that protein 

 matter may " begin to live in an organic form." Of 

 course he does not consider it necessary to give any 

 reasons for such a strange opinion. It is supported by 

 authority, but where are the facts which support it ? 



